KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — With no reason absentee voting along with same day voter registration, election officials throughout the state have been hard at work during this presidential primary.
Locally, Kalamazoo County Clerk Tim Snow said they only had minor issues during Tuesday’s election. He says only a couple precincts ran out of ballots, but it was quickly taken care of.
As of 8:45 p.m. Tuesday in Kalamazoo County, there were 24,184 absentee ballots turned in, but Snow says when he left there was still a long line at city hall with voters taking advantage of the same day voter registration, which means more absentee ballots are expected to come in.
At that time, about 530 people registered to vote that day in the county with about 250+ of those from the city of Kalamazoo.
“This is the a huge thing for us. The first big election since all the law changes. Now we will be able regroup and plan for the next one,” Snow added.
Lines may have been a little shorter at precincts throughout Kalamazoo County due to the increase in absentee voting. Snow says that the over 24,000 absentee votes is about 13% of the registered voters.
Despite the more work Proposal 3 puts on election officials, Snow says it’s still worth it. “We’ve got a lot of new registered voters that we hope will continue their voting in all the elections left in the year.”
He also complimented the residents he did see in line. “Nearly all were young people. They were very nice, very kind, understanding.” He says some of them were standing in line for more than two hours.
Results for Kalamazoo County can be found here as they come in.
